Germany's southern state of Bavaria is considering republishing Adolf Hitler's manifesto, Mein Kampf, for the first time since the end of World War II.

The issue has thrown the country back into a debate about its Nazi past.

The publication has been backed by academics and prominent Jewish organisations in Germany, but some are still wary of the move.

Adolph Hitler wrote the two-volume Mein Kampf (My Struggle) while in prison in 1924, nine years before he rose to power.

The work is part autobiography, mixed in with his views on the "racial purity" of Aryans, his hatred of Jews and his opposition to communism.

It is estimated around 10 million copies were published in Germany until 1945 when it was banned.

Bavaria owns the copyright to the book and has not permitted reprints since the end of the war, but the copyright expires at the end of 2015.

Now the state government has announced it will release a new edition with historians' commentary, as well as a separate version for schools in 2015 to beat commercial publishers to the punch.

It is not a formal prohibition but nonetheless, the sort of taboo on using or reading Mein Kampf has in some way stymied attempts to come to terms with the Nazi past.

Dr Matt Fitzpatrick, Flinders University

Bavaria is also reportedly planning an English edition, an electronic book, and an audiobook.

Dr Matt Fitzpatrick, a senior lecturer in international history at Flinders University, says Nazism has been a vexed issue for Germans since the end of the Second World War.

"Even though we are moving towards the third and even beyond generation since the war, there is a real sense that post-war German national identity is still heavily linked to the Nazi past," he said.

"That is to say that part of the role of the modern German nation is to examine and atone for their Nazi past, so this has been a strong strand of German national identity ever since the war and continues unabated."

"The decision is a kind of preventative strike in some ways. It's aimed at stopping unexpurgated editions of Mein Kampf erupting all over the place once the copyright on Mein Kampf falls out of their hands.

"They want to make sure that if Mein Kampf is going to be produced after that copyright lapses, that the editions that dominate the market will be editions that are sensitive towards the kind of historical place of Mein Kampf and illustrate some of the overt falsities of the book."

The book's contents are already available on the internet and in countries outside Germany.

Bavarian government officials say their new edition, filled with respected historians' commentary, would be impossible to use as far-right propaganda.

'Awful, very boring book'

It's racist, it's anti-semitic, it's awful and it's a very boring book. No one has really read it and I don't see that there's any sense in republishing it.

Konrad Kwiet, Sydney University

The move has been welcomed by the Central Council of Jews in Germany, which has described the announcement as "responsible" and "a good idea".

But not everyone is happy. Konrad Kwiet, professor of Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Sydney University, says there is no point in republishing Mein Kampf.

"I can't see that this is a major achievement in the attempt to master the past in Germany," he said.

"It's racist, it's anti-Semitic, it's awful and it's a very boring book. No one has really read it and I don't see that there's any sense in republishing it."

Professor Kwiet also rejects the idea that the new format may debunk some of the errors of history in the original book.

He is also against plans for an edition specifically aimed at schools.

"That has been done hundreds of times. I mean Mein Kampf was always one of the main sources ... for Hitler's ideology. I don't think that there will be much more coming out if you have now a critical edition of it," he said.

"There are texts which have been selected from the books as sources which can be used in the Holocaust and genocide education but I don't think that you need now a comprehensive critical edition of that book."

Dr Matt Fitzpatrick disagrees.

"In some ways, the prohibition on Mein Kampf has been something that has been difficult for scholars and schools to get around," he said.

"It is not a formal prohibition but nonetheless, the sort of taboo on using or reading Mein Kampf has in some way stymied attempts to come to terms with the Nazi past."